Ironhead Disappointed with Eastern shift forks

[davixlrtt]

Tidying up my transmission while the cylinder heads are getting fitted with new valve seats, I had posted here a while back that I was dropping out of 4th gear at around 90/95 mph. The dogs on the clutch gear were starting to round off so I replaced it with a really good used one that I already had and put a new needle bearing into it. strangely main shaft 2nd was serviceable. The tower had already been shimmed by.020” at some point in its life but clearances between all the dogs were better with the shims removed and this also gave me deeper engagement between clutch and 2nd. The main shaft fork had taken a bit of a beating so I decided to replace both standard forks with Eastern items but I’m really disappointed with the fit in the grooves, they don’t seem to have the same arc as the OEM and the tips of the forks will even make contact with the gear teeth on the opposite shaft depending on the gear selected (there might be a bit of droop between the shaft’s as this is only a bench test but the OEM forks clear ok).
So has anyone any experience with running Eastern steel forks? If I grind a bit of clearance at the point of contact with the gear teeth do you think that they might be okay to run? The fit on the fork shaft is good and the top hats fit nicely also, it’s just the fit to the groove I’m not happy with.
……Davi.

[JB in NC]

The fact that these aftermarket steel forks can touch the gears on the adjacent shaft has been well known for decades among H-D mechanics. Yes, the grinding of 20 or 30 thou extra clearance will take care of the problem, and at no danger to the shift fork. It is good that you have attended closely to fitting these pieces to your transmission.

I would caution you that if your transmission has been jumping out of 4th gear, replacing the clutch gear AND the mainshaft 2nd gear is in order. Do not be deceived on this point.

Jim

[forqueue]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpZs2c_QA_I

[needspeed]

Great video. Thanks for showing that.

[davixlrtt]

Thanks for getting back to me guys, Jim, I know where you’re coming from about m.s. second but the edges are still fairly decent (we’ll see). forqueue thanks for the video that’s exactly what I’m experiencing so I’ll take a bit of material off as you suggested, I wasn’t going to use theses forks but if you are using them without any problems I’ll give them a try.
……Davi.